Germany announces it will arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin if he travels to their country
Germany announced that it will have to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin if he entered German territory. The same applies if the International Criminal Court requests contracting states for enforcement. Marco Buschmann, Germany’s Justice Minister, stated this.
The ICC issued arrest warrants on March 17 for Putin and Maria Lvova Belova, Russia’s children’s rights commissioner responsible for the forced deportation of Ukrainian children. Putin became the third state leader to receive an ICC arrest warrant after Omar al-Bashir in Sudan and Muammar Gaddafi in Libya.
The ICC’s decision obligates 123 countries that are ICC members to arrest Putin and send him to The Hague if he enters their territory.
According to a statement put out by the ICC, there are “reasonable grounds to believe” that Putin is directly responsible for overseeing the forced kidnapping and relocation of over 16,000 Ukrainian children since the start of the full-scale invasion. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the actual number might be much higher.
Russian forces have unlawfully transferred or deported thousands of Ukrainian civilians to Russia, violating the Geneva Conventions.
Putin speaks fluent German and worked in the country as a KGB agent surfing the Soviet Union era.
“I expect the ICC to quickly approach Interpol and the contracting states and ask them for enforcement,” Buschmann said according to German magazine, Bild